8/10/2015

Me and my boyfriend went here on a Friday night for date night. First thing I noticed: it was packed! However, we were still seated quickly which I appreciated. Next thing I noticed: it was incredibly loud. Me and my BF found it difficult to even talk from across the table, since it was so loud. If you enjoy a more lively, louder crowd, this place it great. If you enjoy a quitter, more intimate/romantic place, skip this restaurant.

Moving on the service, our waiter explained the menu and then disappeared for about 20mins, we eventually asked a busboy to find him and bring him back because we were staving and ready to order!

The great thing was, once we finally ordered, our food and drinks arrived in less than 10 minutes! The sangria was excellent, it's prepared very traditionally and was an excellent complement to the meal. Next, the food. We had three tapas. It was difficult to choose because everything in the menu looked great! The tapas range from about $8-$13, I found these prices reasonable for the quality of the food (although don't expect large portions, it's tapas, after all).

The calamari was very good! Not the best I've ever had, but it was fresh and delicious. Next we had pinchos de pollo, grilled chicken on a stick served with saffron rice and caramelized onions. This was excellent. It reminded me of food I had in Puerto Rico it tasted incredibly fresh, we both loved this dish. Lastly we had grilled octopus served over sliced potatoes. I would avoid this dish. The potatoes has literally no seasoning or sauce whatsoever, making the dish very bland. Even though the octopus still seemed fresh, the overall taste of the dish was super disappointing, especially when compared to the quality of the other two dishes.

Overall, it was fun to try a tapas place and the quality of ingredients at this restaurant is top notch. If you do decide to visit, make sure to get the sangria and be prepared for a routy crowd!

7/16/2015

I was looking forward to having a great dining experience here and after having dined at other tapas bars in the city I was expecting a lot from this highly ranked restaurant.

The sangría is very smooth and some of the dishes are fantastic, but something about being crammed into a room full of people on a weekday evening makes the meal a bit less enjoyable. The server was fantastic, he was attentive and helpful, but the ambiance of the place does not compare to other places. I was content with my food but the whole experience at Ibérico did not live up to the hype about it. Maybe next time. Maybe I'll get better seating and choose a new set of dishes.

7/7/2015

If anyone hasn't had Spanish Tapas before, I really suggest going to this place because of the abundance of dishes available. Veggie dishes are very limited but I really liked the idea of hot and cold tapas along with entrees with chicken/seafood and desserts. The place was jam-packed on a thursday evening (but it was long weekend). The service was a little slow but decent. We ordered the patatas bravas as appetizer, chicken empanada and veggie empanada and cazula de pollo( chicken drumsticks with potatoes).

The patatas bravas was spicy potatoes -  they were really good. The empanadas were soo big enough to share among two people as an appetizer. Chicken empanada was good and heard veggie one was good.

FYI: Entree had just one veggie option. So my friend ordered one more empanada. The drumstick with potatoes were soo heavy - there were 6 pcs of chicken that was good and potatoes were pretty much same as bravas. Heavy stuff :)

• 

  Veggie empanada - hugee

  Veggie empanada - hugee
• 

  Cazuela de Pollo al ajillo

  Cazuela de Pollo al ajillo
• 

  Half chicken empanada

  Half chicken empanada
• See all photos from Avinash K. for Café Iberico

5/29/2015

This place was recommended to me by a friend. The duck, shrimp, and paella is by far my favorites. Great Spanish food and definitely one of my go to places when I visit Chicago! The sangria is also really really good! Not too sweet, but also not bitter.

If you're not paying attention, you can easily miss it. My sister, my aunt, and myself walked around a couple of times before we figured out that was the place. Maybe it was our lack of direction in that moment...

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  My sister and I were usin the bread to scrape the bottom, rude but it's family.

  My sister and I were usin the bread to scrape the bottom, rude but it's family.
• 

  Good, but not my favorite

  Good, but not my favorite
• 

  The flan was so light and creamy!!!

  The flan was so light and creamy!!!

6/24/2015

I went here with a bunch of coworkers the other night and were easily accommodated. The servers were friendly and attentive. The food was absolutely delicious. Every plate that came out was better and better. The sangria was great too.

Loved it!

5/28/2015

I've been to Cafe Ba-ba-reeba and Cafe Iberico.  Both of them similar with some slight differences.  Cafe Babareeba is definitely trendier and better for date night. Cafe Iberico is more affordable and much larger so it can accomodate big groups.  I choose which restaurant depending on the type of night and group I'm going with.  

First time - went on a date. The edm music was UNTZ-UNTZ-UNTZ.. not that conducive for talking at normal levels.  The environment in general just isn't as fun or trendy so I preferred date night at Cafe ba-ba-reeba.  However, Cafe Iberico was easier on my date's wallet :D
Second time - went with my family. It was great for seating a big group, definitely made the dinner affordable with so many people and the edm masked the kid's annoying banter. Winning!

Food (stand outs):
- baked goat cheese: you wonder why baked cheese would be so special but it just is.  
- Spanish potato salad: i love potatoes so this just hit the spot
- pulpo a la plancha (octopus): delicious
- potato and leek soup: light but smokey and flavorful.
- patata bravas: nice chunky flavorful potatoes.

Food (skip!):
- paella: i'm sorry. I'm sad too. I'm all about paella and the flavor was there.. but everyone in my group agreed it tastes like they use Uncle Ben quality type of rice. It was round and chewey and totally mucks up the entire taste of this dish.  

Tips:
- You don't need to make a reservation unless you want to sit in a specific area. They have plentiful upstair seating but it's not as fun of an environment

6/19/2015

Can't go wrong with this place. Plenty of seating in main and upper levels with good food.

Paella dishes are about $14-15 and will fill you up. My other favorite dish is their goat cheese and tomato sauce served with garlic roasted bread. You cannot go wrong with the goat cheese dish (not the salad!).

They also usually feature some sort of drink special so those are fun to take advantage of.

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  Seafood Paella ($14-15)

  Seafood Paella ($14-15)
• 

  Seafood (with sausages) Paella $14-$15

  Seafood (with sausages) Paella $14-$15

2/28/2015

Came here with a girlfriend to try out Spanish food. We were running out of food categories to try, so here we are.  

First up: sangria! White sangria was the way we decided to start our night.  Get s pitcher of sangria to share is better than getting a cup each. Most people go for the red, but we decided to go for the white. White sangria tasted more refreshing and sweeter than the red. Depending on how you want to start the night... long you wanna last for the night... you can choose your color of sangria accordingly.

Grill lamb with potato and grill fennel: recommended by the waiter and off the menu, it was declines! The lamb was juicy and tender even though we got it in medium. The fennel was sweet and tender. The potato had perfect amount of seasoning... Yummolicious is the way to describe this dish.

Seafood Paella: make sure you order this right away as you decide on other dishes. It takes about 40 minutes for this dish to cook. It's amazing both the rice and the seafood are cooked perfectly. The rice tender but not soggy while the seafood were not overcooked and chewy.

Dessert - strawberry crepe: omg so good and so deliciously. The strawberry was fresh made i think. The sourness and tartness of the strawberry goes perfectly with the sweetness of the ice-creme. A must get dessert.

Tip: gets extremely pack around 7:30, so make reservation ahead of time or come early!

• 
• 

  Special lamb

  Special lamb
• 

  Iberico palepa special without pork

  Iberico palepa special without pork

7/13/2015

Why have I never reviewed this place, I've been here MANY times over the years. This is a place that's good for a big group. When you get the inevitable giant bill, it's not a big deal to split it, as you are probably dining on shared tapas. Reasonable prices, and the sangria keeps flowin'. It's gotten a little big, but if you are looking for a racous, loud, relatively authentic Spanish experience, this is probably a good choice.

8/7/2015

Like the paellas; the tapas are good. The restaurant gets very busy and loud; the last couple of times I went, they didn't have music playing which made the noise very noticeable. One time I went there the table wasn't very stable, we had to use a lot of napkins to stabilize it. I went there few times, I don't prefer to go there. If you're craving paellas/tapas and prefer to stay in the RiverNorth/Gold Coast areas, then you can check out this place, other wise I don't recommend. You won't get anything unique or special at this place, every thing is about average including environment, food, and customer service.

7/2/2015

Good tapas place down in river north, I'll be back soon for sure.

If you've been to Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, that's what I'll compare Iberico against. To start, if you're flying solo, the bar seems pretty cool. They have smaller tapas fit for a single person, given the portions of the normal tapas, this might not be a bad idea if you're with a small group looking to try a bunch of different stuff.

The quality/presentation wasn't as good as Ba Ba Reeba, but overall, we really enjoyed our orders! The portions are pretty big for tapas, our group did not leave hungry (7 tapas between 3 people). I'd recommend the scallops and garlic shrimp, the shrimp were our favorites by far! We also really enjoyed the beef and chicken skewers.

We ordered all tapas right away, not realizing how fast everything would come out from the kitchen. Our table was packed immediately. I would highly recommend spacing it out, only placing a few orders in at a time.

Overall, great time, good food, decent service. I look forward to heading back soon.

6/20/2015

Awesome food as always. They have quick service, good sangria and yummy food. We got the garlic shrimp, tilapia with beans and Rapini, chicken brasa, lamb and chicken pixtos. All the dishes were delicious.
A highly recommended place

• 
• 

  The Gralic Shrimp

  The Gralic Shrimp

4/23/2015 Updated review

Years later I decided to give it another try and the experience was equally bad. The vegetarian soup came out cold, like it had been prepared the night before.

The menu has nothing else gluten free, even their patatas bravas they said uses wheat in the sauce.

My bf had the empanada and didn't like it much. He was picking out the raisins from the filling. It was also an open pastry, hard to slice and eat, compared to the closed end empanada we were used to.

I'm surprised this place is always busy but being the only sit down in the 'hood, I can see why they've never had to focus on quality.

12/9/2014

It was our last night in Chicago and we wanted to end it with another amazing restaurant. This place happened to be just around the corner from the Hyatt we were staying at.

We probably ordered about 6 different plates and to be completely honest I don't remember the name of any of them. All you need to know is that all of the dishes we ordered were amazing and authentic. I spent a little time in Spain and this is the closest I've found the States to authentic tapas.

Our waiter was on point and very attentive, our glasses were never empty and he was around if we needed anything.

The desserts are also amazing, we ordered the choco flan, arroz con leche and regular flan. I love me some arroz con leche and it took me back to the days I spent in Spain.

I highly recommend this place to anyone who lives anywhere near this place. I'm so jealous you Chicagoans have such a plethora of amazing restaurants.

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  Choco flan, arroz con leche, caramel flan

  Choco flan, arroz con leche, caramel flan
• 

  I dont remember the names. Try them all

  I dont remember the names. Try them all

4/2/2015

This was a lovely place to eat and drink. The tapas was diverse and delicious. The sangria and wine were great and priced very well (by the bottle and pitcher at least).

I was in town for business and my colleagues scheduled this dinner which included about 22 of us. I know normally this restaurant does not take reservations but upon our arrival it was nice that they prepared a table for us. Maybe it has to be a very large group or I'm not sure what exactly got us an actual reservation but glad we did.

We had many tapas including many names that have slipped my mind. The first one we had was a bread with a tomato like spread on top that sat on slices of bruschetta and a slide of cheese which was my absolute favorite of the night. It was so good we ordered another round of it. We also got a toasted cheese dish which was good. It had bread with something green spread on it and you spread the toasted cheese that sat in a pool of a red tomato sauce on top of the bread. I am a fan of all things cheese. We also ordered octopus that was cooked well. The omelette we ordered came in the form that I liken to a slice of cake. It was layered in a wedge shape with potato, egg, cheese and some herbs. It was very good and even when it cooled off it still tasted great. I typically can't stand cold eggs.

The atmosphere of this restaurant was another big win in my books because there was not a high volume of restaurant noise which made for an amazing night of real conversations that didn't require us to scream over each other. The staff was very polite and attentive.

I would come back for more.

3/12/2015

A mix of solid and mediocre dishes at this restaurant. Dishes I would definitely re-order are:

#1 Datiles con Jamon (dates stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in Spanish ham; served with rice and raisins)
I could use more goat cheese in the dates but that's a personal preferences (I'm a huge cheese lover). What I absolutely LOVE about this dish is the rice+raisins. It is subtle, moist and fragrant. Goes perfectly with the dates.

#2 Paella Iberica (served with seafood, chicken and pork)
Large portion, so definitely order to share

Other dishes I've tried but wasn't blown away about:

- Pulpo a la Plancha (grilled octopus with potatoes and olive oil): The octopus is grilled wonderfully but the potatoes don't really work for me. Feels like soggy fries.
- Salmon Ahumado (smoked salmon with capers and fresh dill cream sauce): This seems like a spinoff from your regular smoked salmon bagel. Doesn't strike me as a particularly Spanish dish but I may be wrong...
- Champinones a la Plancha (grilled mushrooms with garlic and olive oil): Just very regular mushrooms to me...

Quick tip: They tend to prepare their dishes really oily so I've gotten into the habit of asking for less oil/butter.

9/28/2014

Our friend wanted us to check out her favorite tapas place for dinner.  Café Iberico is a large restaurant that had a fun atmosphere with diners ranging from two to a party of 16. Several birthday celebrations this evening.  Our waiter answered some of our questions before we decided to just go for some cold, red sangria. So refreshing.

We then placed our orders:
Canelon de Atun, a tuna cannelloni served with a creamy white wine sauce.  This was a cold tapas dish that I felt was ok, since I'm more accustomed to cream sauces being hot.

Championes a la Plancha. Delicious grilled mushrooms with garlic and olive oil. Could have had another order.

Pulpo a la Gallega, sliced tender octopus with paprika and olive oil served on top of sliced potatoes. Tasty and the octopus was perfectly cooked as it was not tough.  

Paella Iberica, with seafood, chicken, pork, and rice baked in its own pan with saffron sauce.  A nice size paella.  Seafood and meat were tender and tasty.  The rice was perfectly cooked.

Had a great meal and will be back in our next trip to Chicago.

• 

  Paella Iberica

  Paella Iberica
• 

  Canelon de Atun,

  Canelon de Atun,
• 

  Pulpo a la Gallega

  Pulpo a la Gallega
• See all photos from Al L. for Café Iberico

8/1/2015

I've been coming here a couple of times a year for getting on maybe 20 years. Tonight was disappointing. The service was great, but the kitchen is falling flat.  Flavored that used to astound, now whimper. Dishes are unbalanced, cooked and prepared to be bland, mass production, and uninteresting. Iberico's chef was legend; putting all the competition in place. Now he has become tame and happy with the middle of the road.  I hope that this was just a bad day and not an example of the downfall of a once great restaurant.

7/7/2015

Got the Iberico paella for lunch from a client recently and loved it! Great food and awesome portions

5/24/2015

Love this place! One of my favorite places of all times. My friends and I come here often and the food is great every time.

4/27/2015

For the money, it's so so so soooo good!
Amongst other things we tried the Pulpo A La Plancha. Oh my! So simply and well executed. It was incredibly delicious!

The place sent me back to Spain for a little bit. The music awesome. Probably as loud as over there. The food as good (the portions are much larger than in Spain tho!!) and the service was fast.

A safe solid pick for a fun night out.
Warning: this ain't a fancy place. But one to go with a group for good times!!!

• 

  Sorry for the bad picture of this "Pulpo a la Plancha". Grilled octopus on a bed of hand cut fries. Aaaabsolutely de-li-ci-o-so!

  Sorry for the bad picture of this "Pulpo a la Plancha". Grilled octopus on a bed of hand cut fries. Aaaabsolutely de-li-ci-o-so!

4/2/2015

My sis & I stopped by this place on our trip to Chicago. I loved this place. It took us back to the wonderful memories of our Spain trip.

The dishes I LOVED !!!!

Patatas Ali -Oli
Ensalada De Vegetables
Pulpo A La Plancha
Pincho De Solomillo

The dishes that were OK-

Queso De Cabra
Caldo Gallego ( this soup is supposed to be vegetarian but we found very small bones & specks of meat )
Veg paella ( a lil too salty for my taste)

We also ordered a pitcher of red sangria. It was nice. The white sangria is supposed to be sweeter.... But I prefer red.
They also had complimentary bread & olive oil. We sat at the bar & our bartender was super duper friendly & sweet.
This place comes closest to the tapas I ate at Granada Spain!!!!

Will definitely be revisiting this place, since a trip to Chicago from Michigan is cheaper than a flight to Spain !!!

• 

  Yummmm !

  Yummmm !
• 

  Veg paella... Nothing special...

  Veg paella... Nothing special...

4/19/2015

Cafe iberico is very well known in Chicago for its tapas. Not really sure why it's so popular however.
It's average at best. There are so many other amazing tapas places in the city or in surrounding suburbs.

It takes about a good 45 mins to an hour just to get seated. It takes another 30-40 mins to get your food from when you place the order. Then it takes about a good 15-20 mins to get your check after you are done with your meal because the server is too busy with all the other tables to notice what's going on. The servers I may add work very hard to put in the orders quickly, but things run slow, because of how crowded they are at all times.

If you call ahead they let you know that after a certain time you can't make a reservations, you can just walk in and you will have a 20 min wait. What a lie lie lie, they only tell you that so you get to the restaurant tsk tsk, not nice.

You walk into what should be their bar area, but because they are so incredibly crowded it's more of a waiting area while your table is ready in what feels like forever.

The floors in the lobby area are just gross. They are old, have dirty on them, the grout is ancient and filthy, they should really consider looking at rehabbing the place to look up to date and clean. It's not very appetizing to see that.

The parking is ok, you might have to drive around a few times if you are parking yourself, but they do have valet, or you can pay a premium for parking lots in the area.

Let's talk about the food. It's not as authentic as I would have hoped.
The rice is rice-a-roni, it definitely tastes like it's from a box.
The chicken isn't exactly tasty like other places. I'm not even sure that it's marinated with anything as it tasted like it was just sautéed.

The presentation of the food is nice, but it lacks in flavor or it just tastes weird, nothing special and a little skeptical of some flavors.

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  Peppers on the left. Patatas bravas on the top right. Chicken skewer with rice, and caramelized onions bottom right.

  Peppers on the left. Patatas bravas on the top right. Chicken skewer with rice, and caramelized onions bottom right.

1/16/2015

My husband found this place when doing his Chicago-eats research and it was on his list to try.  From reviews we heard this place gets pretty busy and at times it's hard to find a table.  I guess we lucked out because there was no wait upon our arrival and we got a pretty prime table for two to catch the end of the World Cup in June.  The place was pretty bumpin because of this - and it was the mid-afternoon.

We weren't hungry, but just wanted to try it out so we just ordered the potatoes (fries) and grilled octopus and the seafood paella.  The octopus was a nice surprise as it's served on a wooden platter with cut up octopus pieces that were not chewy and pretty easy to eat!  We enjoyed it with ketchup even though it might have been a sin.  

The seafood paella came a little bit later because it takes longer to cook.  I found that it was pretty salty.  Like borderline send it back salty.  The saving grace was that we were given bread so I just ate the paella with the bread and kinda picked off the top.  Flavour was good, just too much salt.  Service was fine - nothing too special.

Good place to catch a big game as they opened up their projector screen for the patrons to watch from.

2/28/2015

This place is not my favorite, but I'll still go there if friends want to meet up.  I don't want to say bad things about them, I just feel I've been to better places when it comes to food and drinks.
I've been here many times, always expecting to be "wowed" by them, but always leave with the same impression that things could've been better.  Sometimes I think that food is blend, sometimes it's is too salty, sometimes too oily.  Ordered a caipirinha and the bartender smashed the lime in a way that the bitterness comes out of the skin. When it happens the drink does not taste good.
Sangrias are not the best either.
The only really good thing I've had so far was some bottled beer from Spain they have.  Light, tasty, good beer.

2/11/2015

I was going to give this place two stars is because it could feasibly be fun with a group of people and if you're really drunk and don't care about what you're eating, but I want to hold myself to higher standards. I gave this place a second chance because my boyfriend's boss was raving about it, even though I had no distinctly fond memories, except of the octopus.

I want to preface my qualifications to judge this "authentic" food with the fact that I've had tapas in Spain and also I have taste buds. First off, it's like they recently discovered salt and a deep fryer and can't get enough of it. "Papas" just means french fries in which they hide the relatively yummy (though overcooked) morsels of octopus which I was really excited about. The mussels had clearly not been cleaned so I got complimentary sand with that dish. The "patatas bravas" were over cooked & dry & boring. I don't even remember the clams, so that tells you all about that. We didn't order the paella because my boyfriend is allergic to shrimp and I had gotten it during my last visit and OD'ed on sodium.

The sangria was a very sad excuse for what is normally a glorious beverage. The only fruit in it was orange and apple (that I could tell) which was mush, indistinguishable from canned fruit.

I don't want to be overly harsh. Clearly this place has a fantastic fan following and, sure, it's fun and reasonably priced. But would I eat here again? No. Next time I'm craving tapas I'm going to pay (a lot) more for some authentic Spanish food and fresh sangria.

5/6/2015

I had never tried authentic Spanish food before and realized that I'm not a big fan of the food. I'm sure Cafe Iberico is great if you're into Spanish food.

The restaurant was clean, busy, and had a fun atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was so dark in the corner where my group was seated that we all had to use the flashlights on our phones to read the menu. It was weird.

7/19/2014

I went for lunch during the week with 2 family members who were visiting from out of town. I love tapas and they've never had them, so I wanted to give this place a shot (since my favorite tapas place isn't open for lunch during the week.)

Overpriced for the portion sizes and the menu is REALLY limited compared to Ba-Ba-Reeba. The white sangria didn't have much flavor and I was disappointed that they didn't have different flavors. The patatas bravas were really good and spicy as other reviewers have said, but nothing else wowed me. Three of us shared the potatoes, ham wrapped dates, some kind of beef with onions and french fries (odd? The beef was awesome but the fries were terrible and the onions were so-so), and ham croquettes.  I had one glass of not so great sangria and everyone else had water. Our bill was almost $50. We ate lots of bread with olive oil to get filled up. If people love the food here, I can't imagine how blown away they would be by Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba because it is 1000 times better!!!

• 
• 

  Ham croquettes and Serrano wrapped dates

  Ham croquettes and Serrano wrapped dates
• 

7/10/2015

Have you been to Tapas Valencia in South Loop? Cafe Iberico might have been five stars years ago, however I feel like they still are busy because people don't know any better. The restaurant must be riding on these coattails.

The food was good, however in comparison to other Tapas joints, it just fell below the standards they have set.  Portions are not large for price, quality of food was so so...

I would come back here, but only if it was extremely convenient. Even then, a few extra miles to Tapas Valencia will still be worth it.

8/7/2015

Alert: our credit card was skimmed by staff here. We have used this card twice this year so the theft was easy to trace. It happens and I do not entirely blame the restaurant. BUT when we called to report it the manager was less than interested and seemed confused by the entire matter. She said the owner would get back to us. That never happened. Well, your waiter and his friend got gas, shoes and haircuts. Food and drink were great, as always - but I will never return.

6/9/2015

As a chef, I try to be fair to restaurants. Nothing is worse than having someone who doesn't understand food, or quality food, complaining unfairly. For full disclosure, I own a restaurant myself about 75 miles from Chicago. I have no axe to grind with this review. I just ask those who review me to be fair.
Cafe Iberico takes the name of arguably the most revered ham in the world. The demand for it and prices for Pata Negra certainly reflect its highly sought after status.

Now to my objective review: I ordered the Jamon with Tomato Bread and Manchego. It was delicious however, it was not Iberico.
Next was the dates stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in ham. The dates were delicious but there are two glaring problems:
1) again not Iberico ham?!?!? What the heck man?
2) this is advertised as a Spanish Tapas restaurant and the dish came with CONVERTED rice?!???
It was bland and the texture was mushy and it should have never been in an appetizer at this $$$!
Seriously, what self respecting culinary artist would put converted rice on a plate?? Amateur.

Next was the Cafe Iberico Paella. I was afraid to hope but here it was again, converted bland, yet somehow salty, converted rice with no saffron flavor and completely the wrong texture.

How the hell could anyone out out this tourist trap food? You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Have some damn pride.
The worst $120 I've ever spent. Please do not waste your money.

8/6/2015

Love the food here. With friends and had several small plates, including chorizo, mussels, salmon, vegetarian paella, mushrooms. Good service too.

11/30/2014

This is a great place for a group of people to share some tapas.  We were a large group so we kind of split into smaller groups to split dishes while ordering.  Then we passed the left overs around to anyone who was still hungry.

The patatas bravas were excellent and spicy.  Just the way I like it.  We also had some goat baked goat cheese with basil and pesto spread which was yummy and I would definitely recommend.  We also got a larger plate of seafood paella.  This was pretty good and a large portion. We had a couple of other dishes that I can't remember, but nothing that i didn't like.

7/15/2015

These tapas aren't small. These were almost 1/3 of an a entrée size. So beware of that. The wine selection from Spain was excellent and I really enjoyed the very dry red wines myself. Best foods:  seafood paella, octopus and the grilled squid. Oh yeah, the spicy potatoes were surprisingly great! The seating was excellent and the service was spot on.

4/25/2015

I was sooo disappointed with the food. We ordered the patatas bravas, garlic shrimp, goat cheese with tomato basil sauce, steamed mussels with marinara, and paella iberico. Everything was mediocre at best, except the paella. The paella was horrible. It was undercooked, poorly seasoned, and a bit watery. We took a few bites and gave up. I think any tapas restaurant worth its salt should be able to make paella properly. Extremely disappointed. Will not be going back to this restaurant.

6/17/2015

Great spot love the tapas & the crowd but heres a reminder to everyone my first time here for my birthday 4yrs ago i had the snail i had the runs for 2months before going to the hospital so dont do escargo

10/28/2014

I really really enjoyed my time here.

Atmosphere is fun and lively- kinda on the loud side.

I would say their sangarias are killer! I could barely finish one glass- not that I am entirely complaining.

Also, the tapas are very good! They have a great variety of dishes ranging from different meats, hot and cold; you're sure to find something you will like!

5/29/2015

ONE WORD "AMAZING"

Not pricey
Good atmosphere
Amazing Sangria
Food is delicious

• 

  Loved my paella

  Loved my paella

7/6/2015

Delicious food and beautiful ambience.  Yummiest tapas I've ever had.  Must go back for the sangria!

12/2/2014

Another birthday dinner here too - and with little to no coordination we pulled off a pretty diverse free for all ordering spree without going overboard!

We ended up with two orders of paella (one with sausage, the other with seafood), pitchers of red sangria, potatoes (patatas bravas), shrimp with garlic, scallops, fish, steak...covering all our bases.  I don't remember which dish might've come with some grilled vegetables but those were by far the weakest part of the meal.

Anyway, the food and portions were good and the sangria was delicious.  The birthday girl got a nice dessert gift from the kitchen as well which was entertaining enough for me to solidly put four stars on this review.

6/9/2015

Ok so this place has great ratings on yelp so I made a point of going there during my last trip to Chicago last week. I have to say I was not impressed.  The food was OK, nothing amazing at all. It is a casual place. I got the seafood Paella and it was just really OK.  The shrimp with garlic was good but again nothing too amazing. But the worst part is the smell of the place. When you first walk in there is a horrible smell in the hallway. Really not good at all. Thank god the dinning area did not smell but the front entrance smell was horrible. Not sure why but I will not be returning.

11/26/2014

Sadly, I couldn't take photos of the food that we ordered. What can I say, the group was hungry.

I came here for a birthday dinner, so there was a large group of us. 15 of us, to be exact. So we ordered something like 21 dishes! Again, I've waited too long to write my review, so I can't remember a lot of what we ordered.

I remember the paella being quite spectacular, so if it's just a few of you coming for a meal, make sure to order the paella STAT! It takes a while to make, so you have to order it right at the beginning.

I'm sorry that I can't give more than 3 stars, because I feel like the dishes weren't that outstanding that anything really stood out in my mind. Plus, I don't know if it was because we had a large group, but it took SO long for them to come around to collect the bill after it was dropped off. I think we all settled it within 2 minutes, and it was just sitting there waiting to be collected. I had to get up and find the guy. I mean, don't you wanna get paid???

4/1/2014

Iberico!

Let me echo Yvonne's original review in that Iberico is loud, and it is crowded. It also looks incredibly trashy at the entrance if you're walking in through the bar. Service is also crap, as anyone other than your waiter will not be helpful.  On that basis, I almost wanted to walk out before I actually sat at my table.

With that said, let's get to how such a crap place manages to garner such a positive review: The food. The food here is very, very faithful to Spanish tapas, and I don't mean the generic stuff. They also have one significant addition: their potatoes are actually spicy, which is unlike Spain - where spicy is basically "added pepper". All in all I found the Tapas here to be delicious and well worth their value, as well as being well prepared and freshly cooked.

The ambiance kinda sucked in addition to having random techno playing while eating (which amuses me), but the food is worth the trip.

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  Roasted red pepper dish

  Roasted red pepper dish
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  Mista salad

  Mista salad
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  We would never not get goat cheese at a tapas restaurant

  We would never not get goat cheese at a tapas restaurant
• See all photos from Matt R. for Café Iberico

10/14/2014

Great place for a group celebration. Nothing fancy but lots of options and extremely affordable.

I had the patatas bravas which were super spicy, olives which were pretty basic, mushrooms which were amazing, They were my favorite - coated in lots of olive oil and garlic - delicious, baked goat cheese that came with toasted bread with a basil/pesto like spread - also very good. The goat cheese was nice and creamy. A few of us split the seafood paella which was also nice. I wish it had more pieces of seafood but the flavor was definitely there. Sangria was pretty good as was the dessert of sauteed banana in caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream.

11/13/2014 Updated review

Since its expansion, it's been so much easier to get into this place. It used to be so crowded and the lines used to be out of control-- but now they've bought the place next door and expanded into some upstairs seating and now I never really have to wait.

Very traditional tapas, great for groups and for dates, this place is one of my favorites (it really has nothing to do with the fact that I lived practically next door, I swear).

Sangria is great and they have an extensive pintxos menu. I do think Cafe Ba Ba Reeba has better quality tapas, but the menu is smaller and its harder to get into (and park around there). Cafe Iberico definitely can satisfy my tapas cravings.

3/18/2015

I am just impressed with Cafe Iberico! I have been there a number of times over the last 10 yers and the food and service was always wonderful and consistent. This last time we went we took friends of ours. This time around we had our toddlers with us. Despite the fact that we had two messy little ones with us, the service was even more impressive. Every staff member we came in contact with was extremely accommodating and helpful.
The food is just amazing! We always order the seafood paella, goat cheese with tomato sauce, steak with fries, garlic mushrooms and spicy potatoes. All those dishes are as good as Spanish tapas get.  
It is true, they do get pretty busy at night, but that only proves how good they are at what they do. So, make sure to make your reservation, or if going with little ones, go earlier in the evening.
I highly recommend it!!!!

8/21/2014

Sorry this place was OVER rated...Maybe I was expecting something else but this was not a good tapas place.
Sangria was like drinking sugar water....
The Food was all super bland and boring OR 100% over the top on garlic.

Seriously I was more than let down by this place.

10/25/2014

My wife picked this spot and I decided to try it for my birthday weekend and it was a great decision because the food and service was excellent!

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  This was so delicious!!!

  This was so delicious!!!

5/23/2015

This tapas place was okay. The only plates I actually liked from here were the Veggie Paella and the bacon wrapped dates. The pastas bravas were very disappointing. I would go again if someone invited me but I wouldn't make my own plans to go back otherwise.

10/12/2014

I'd been here before. As per my previous yelp tip, the seafood paella and (red wine) sangria are what lured me back. This time around though, they sat our party of 4 upstairs. I have to say this is my biggest complaint about our experience, because at 7 pm on a Friday night, we were shouting at each other over the thumpingly loud music and other diners.

So instead of using our mouths to talk, we set out instead to stuff them with baked goat cheese, ensalada de pollo, raxo adobado, paella, and one dish on special featuring fried mussels (yum!). Only the raxo adobado would I recommend passing on for an alternative. The sangria was just as good the second time around - though nothing beats Dominicks of Ann Arbor.

Prices overall are pretty fair, not too pricey. I will also say I actually appreciate the no reservation policy to keep this restaurant as a good last minute dining option. If you're in the mood for tapas, cafe iberico is a solid choice.

10/8/2014

Wow, just...WOW

Was visiting my brother in Chicago, and he said we should definitely checkout this place to fulfill our seafood cravings. Growing up in the Midwest my entire life, I pretty much lost faith in getting good seafood at decent prices in the area. But after my visit to this place, I stand corrected.

Not only were all the seafood dishes fresh, and amazingly flavored, the wine selection they have to complement the dishes is even more amazing. The sangrias especially, you just cannot come here without having at least one serving of it! Everything is cooked to near perfection, without fail.

Waiters were very responsive and attentive. Very nice atmosphere, and it does have a separate bar with TVs for sporting events. Definitely worth your time and money

2/13/2015

We were a group of 8 people out for dinner and we decided to go to Cafe Iberico. Boy, was that a wrong decision!

Things started going southwards when we were served stacked quarter-plates, and upon picking half of them, we stumbled upon one plate that was completely unwashed! On complaining to the waiter, he seemed completely unapologetic about it, but did replace the plates with a new set immediately.

The food was ok; nothing great. When we ordered desserts, one dish came with a bug on top! This time, we called someone wearing a different colored shirt, hoping that was the manager. He came to our table and after hearing about the insect in the dish, took it away only to return a minute later with the same dish on a new plate. When we mentioned that its the same dish, he said something about "The bug was on top, not inside the dish!"

A couple of us, then left the table to find the manager. We found him near the entrance and mentioned the 2 events that had happened. Again, the manager seemed completely unapologetic, like these things are common and we shouldn't really be complaining about it. However, he did immediately mention that he'll take the dessert off the bill.

Did we expect this kind of service in a popular place downtown Chicago? Absolutely not! More shocking was the reaction of the staff! Needless to say, this is one place off my list for good!

10/4/2014

Café Iberico is a great place to take a group looking for a wide selection of tapas over lunch.

We came here for a coworkers birthday, so mostly we took time to unwind. But I did my best to note the various small plates that were coming across, and the ones I did catch were very good. I'm noting the ones I can remember below:

Jamon Iberico, a.k.a. everyone's favorite Iberian ham and manchego cheese combination. The manchego was good, with a bit less bite than I remember. Likewise, I don't think anything beats actually eating this cut of ham in Spain. But the tomato bread was excellent; almost like a tomato jelly spread over the slices of bread.

Patatas Bravas - One of the "must haves" here. Potatoes in a hot, thick sauce. More than a dash of cayenne. The potatoes were one of my favorite dishes.

Pulpo a la Gallega (Octopus, Galician style) - my favorite small plate. The octopus was sliced thin, briny and remarkably tender. Likewise with the thin-sliced potato. This is a very simple plate, which is what I felt made it work the best.

Calamares Fritos - decent battered and fried calamari. The tomato sauce was decent. Otherwise it was what you would expect.

We also split a couple of pitchers of sangria, which here is made with apples and lemons. I'm not a sangria fan but thought it was OK.

Overall, not a bad reflection of Spanish cuisine. I'd be happy to go back.

2/19/2015

Nothing about this place is great, but I always leave having had a good time and without any real complaints.  Iberico is definitely better with a big group.  Just order a ton of tapas and a few pitchers of sangria and enjoy.  Funny thing, it seems like I always walk out fat, dumb and happy for around $25.  Now, I always chip in extra 'cause I definitely end up with more than my share of food, but even so this place is a pretty good deal for what you get.  Re: the food, I have never had any real complaints about how anything was prepared.  If I didn't like something, it was because I didn't like what it was, not how it was done.  Service is good, they do well picking up dirty plates, filling waters, being handy for the next round of tapas.

9/13/2014

Awesome tapas.  Seafood tapas are done right!  Don't let the look of the venue fool you.  The food was actually very good.  Also, provides great value granted they have different sized tapas.  Would love to try out the endless menu again, its just too much to try in one sitting.

6/8/2015

First time having tapas and apparently this is the place to go. Loved everything I had, goat cheese and garlic shrimp where the highlights. Sangria was fresh and not too strong. The atmosphere was warm and family style. Will be back for sure.

4/20/2015

Omg I love coming here with my friends.  We order sangria with fresh fruit delicious.  I alway order lamb and octopus.  I have ordered the paella but it takes 45min to get to your table it is worth the wait is delicious the rice is cook evenly.  I think this is a great place to chat, eat, and enjoy good spirits.  I also like the muscles in garlic sauce not bad at all.  The prices are not expensive for all the food you get and remember this are tapas not small at all.  The servers are always friendly.

4/9/2015

Like a well-oiled machine that spits out the most amazingness on a plate.... and in a glass (cuz that's some crazy good sangria!)

From the professional upbeat staff, to the decor, ambiance, cleanliness, to food & drink... I don' t know that there was room for improvement anywhere (except maybe my date... kidding!)

I had an incredible salad and the paella was amazing- we had some type of custard for dessert, and pitchers of amazing sangria flow like water.  

Cafe Iberico will surely not disappoint- I will be back!

6/19/2015

The reason for 2 stars is that I love the food but I have been there prob 5 times and 4/5 times the waiter/waitress was horrible!! Very slow, don't know the menu really well and also our food took forever.

6/18/2015

Love love love this place. It is so neat how the tapas are all brought out in the dish they were cooked in. Love the white sangria. Great place for a light or heavy bite. The staff is always very accommodating.

5/16/2015

Fine Spanish tapas with an excellent wait staff and fine dinning rooms.... Been coming here yearly for the past 11 years... Simply the best tapas ....

6/30/2014

I've always loved Cafe Iberico. It has good, well priced tapas, the wine is affordable and of good quality and their sangria is delicious.  I came here today with a group of 6 and the drinks and the tapas didn't disappoint. My go to's are the pulpo (octopus), Gambas, the bacon wrapped dates, and the potato salad (all of them are good).  Today we also tried the lamb special, the mussels and the patatas bravas and all held up to our standards. I think that's impressive considering I had tapas for every meal in Barcelona a few months ago.

I would have given this place 4 stars had it not been for their paella.  What makes Paella is how it's cooked- it is typically prepared  so that the rice is a little crunchy.  The paella here tastes like normal, soft rice with seafood and peas mixed in. I would definitely skip the paella overall since the rice makes the dish.  

Go for the tapas and sangria.

7/26/2015

I'd been twice a decade ago and it was much better. This time there was a really strong, musty smell that permeated the place and frankly made it hard to enjoy the food.  Sad, because this has previously been my favorite place to eat in Chicago.

8/25/2014

Came here and really enjoyed the experience!  Our waiter was fantastic (and really cute ha).  First off, their sangria is amazing... we had the red wine one and it was perfect- looking forward to trying the white next time.  In terms of food, It's small plates style so great for coming with a group of people and trying a bunch of items.  For my roommate and I we had 3 plates and that was the perfect amount.   We started off with the chicken & ham bites and those were tasty, but unfortunately I tasted more of the fried part than actual chicken or ham.  Then moved onto the vegetable plate, which was a good assortment of grilled veggies (squash, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, etc).  We ended with the pork loin with fries, the pork was sliced thin and had a lot of flavor.

In terms of the venue, this place is HUGE.  There are various areas of the restaurant that you can sit in, we happened to be upstairs this time which was nice and a little quieter than downstairs.  I'm giving 4 stars because the food was good, but didn't blow me away.  Service was 5 stars though.  Will be coming back to try some other dishes!

1/18/2015

Have been here several times in a variety of situations. This place has saved me more than once where I mistakenly did not make a reservation on a weekend night for dinner and the churn got us a table within 15/20 minutes.

Generally speaking, I am a fan of this place - it's authentic tapas, fast/solid service, in a fun/upbeat environment.

A few notable items: patatas bravas which is jam packed with flavor, datiles con jamon, red wine sangria, and grilled mushrooms. I also thought the empanada is delicious and fairly sizable.

Even though spanish food is meat heavy - this place also provides enough options for vegetarians which is a plus.

7/17/2014

My boyfriend and I came here on a date. I arrived early and was seated but wasn't even offered water while I wait. So service wasn't great.

We ordered calamari, garlic potatoes, grilled shrimp and beef skewers. The food was fair. I felt like the flavors were off. I expected the shrimp to be buttery but it was spicy. The garlic potatoes I thought were really bad but for some reason I assumed they'd be like mashed potatoes. They were more of a potato salad. I dislike mayonnaise so I hated dish but my boyfriend said it was fair.

The menu (book) is pretty unappealing. They could use an update.

Overall it was fine but not great.